Task bar not responding

[StuartR]

Something odd is happening with my Windows 10 taskbar.

When I right click on a task bar icon, such as Word or Explorer, I no longer get the popup menu with recent entries.
When I left click the Windows icon, I no longer see the start menu.

Most other things seem to be working normally. I can start word with a left click and reopen recently opened documents.
I can left click and right click other things on the screen, including system tray icons, and they all work normally.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Or do I need to revert to a backup system image?

[HansV]

See Taskbar not working in Windows 10 for some suggestions.

[StuartR]

Thank you Hans, I will work through those. I am currently waiting for SFC / SCANNOW to finish, which is taking a while.

[StuartR]

That solved it, thank you Hans. The guilty product was "Trusteer Endpoint Protection" provided by my bank to help secure online banking.

[HansV]

Glad to hear you were able to solve it. My bank offers Trusteer too; I installed it a few years ago and almost immediately uninstalled it again because of some problems. I don't remember anymore which exactly...

[John Gray]

If any bank 'required' me to install Trusteer <anything> I would, without hesitation, change to a different bank. Over the years, the incidence of reports identifying Trusteer Rapport as the source of assorted problems has been significant.

[HansV]

My bank didn't (and doesn't) require it. They simply offered it as an extra security measure. I didn't like it, so I uninstalled it and that was that...

[StuartR]

Mine often reminds me that it is available, and sometimes I install it to stop them nagging. This is the second or third time I've deinstalled it because of problems.

[Argus]

Good to hear you solved it quickly, Stuart.

I did a quick search; what are these Trusteer products trying to solve, secure? "Financial malware"?
"An icon in the browser changing colour to let you know when it’s working". "Creates a tunnel for safe communication" with the banks web site.

[Rebel]

I too had problems with Trusteer (abysmally slow browser performance after installing). When I called the tech support people at my bank (credit union), they informed me that Trusteer didn't work very well with Chrome and that I should consider using another browser.
This is a product that claims to ensure secure internet communications with banking applications but doesn't work properly with one of the most used browsers on the planet. That pretty well said it all for me. GONE!

[StuartR]

Good to hear you solved it quickly, Stuart.

I did a quick search; what are these Trusteer products trying to solve, secure? "Financial malware"?
"An icon in the browser changing colour to let you know when it’s working". "Creates a tunnel for safe communication" with the banks web site.

There are a number of features

• Ensure that you really are connected to the correct website when you think you have connected to your bank. This can prevent DNS hijacks and some types of phishing attack and MITM (man-in-the-middle) attack
• Prevent keyloggers and screen scrapers from capturing passwords and other sensitive information
• Prevent you from using your bank password on other sites
• And probably a few more that I haven't remembered...

[Claude]

Down under, we are quite relaxed about internet banking, https is as hard as it gets. As opposed to Switzerland where I spent some time recently: You insert a device into the PC/Laptop, receive an SMS with the one-time security code, do your banking and then get on with life.

All very good and safe I hear you think. Problem number one: IF you are overseas, out of mobile signal range, you've got Buckley's Chance to get at your money. Same if you misplace the device.

I would never do any internet banking in public places, like airport WiFi, however I consider the security measures I've got on my PC good enough and have never had a problem since I started internet banking more than over a decade ago.

[Jay Freedman]

My bank offers two-factor authentication. I've set it to default to an SMS text, but I can opt for an email if my phone isn't available.

[Argus]

Thanks Stuart.
There are some different solutions here; a separate device with one-time security codes; then we have the very common BankID software (plus soft certificate, but there is also a smart card version) for digital identification and signing of transactions. It is developed by a number of the larger banks. But it is not limited to banks, it can be used for government services etc. tax declaration and more. There is also a mobile version for phones, apparently very popular, but I would never use a mobile for banking. It works with two-factor authentication, one-time security codes from a card sent to you, or via SMS.

Before BankID it was quite common to download certificates from the bank and get the activation code in a letter to your home address.

As Claude, I've never had any problems with security during the 15+ years I've used it. To be honest some of the information about third party tools such as Trusteer (Youtube etc.) seem like scare tactics for some obscure anti-virus from the 90s. "Your anti-malware and firewall isn't enough, we have the solution.", no matter it being from IBM. That said, it seems to be quite common. Just wondered why one would need a dedicated third-party tool.

[StuartR]

My bank issues a hardware token that generates one time codes. I can login without it, but that only allows me to transfer money to existing payees. The token is required to set up a new payee, or make any other significant change.